"What do you expect me to do, PAINT the future?"

"No, not paint. COMPOSE. With your music."

"Am I to be a prophet?"

"Not quite — a pilot. As you're very well aware, the you on the other side of that 'mirror' is a master of this form. In doing so, he's successful enough to be indifferent to our lives. But there are other existences to be experienced, and by weaving —"

"You're referring to the clues, styles and genres which are popular in these alternate realities but not our own?"

"That is correct. I wish you'd stop interrupting me, but the point is: by teasing them out, bringing them from those parallel threads into what we call our world, we may very well have a glimpse — no, a clear vision of what is past and future, what has not flourished yet here. But could. Very well could."

"Mhmmm."

"I get the impression you still don't fully understand. But realize: music is the backbone of many a lifestyle. Music isn't ever just about the music; it reflects what else is happening. Lyrics can refer to fashion trends. Melodies — tonal structure — gives clues to cultural development. And rhythm, well, rhythm shows how people like to dance. Musicians are historians."

"And as we've discussed earlier, by extrapolating a cross-section of these musics 'plucked' from a sidechained reality, we'll continuously peer into that place without riskful exposure?"

"That's the theory. Understand the longer we stay there under conventional means, the more dangerous it becomes, the more influence we can wield — unintentionally. But by continuing to steer the sonic timeship, we should be isolated from those effects while still reaping the benefits."

It's a fresh new look that's much more sensible to navigate, with the goodness of Web 2.0 without the weakness of over-the-top design clichés for no reason. There's gonna be blogging! (Guess who hopes to contribute to that?) And there's gonna be more video tutorials! (Again…)

But perhaps the most beneficial features are to help your informed buying decisions:

• The previews are richer!
• The trial versions now run 10 days WITHOUT a watermark! (Similar to plugins from other companies I laud for trusting the user to find out if a tool is right to them.)
• And there are ALWAYS money-saving bundles — up to 40% if you spend $799 or more, which is unbeatable pro value. No need to hunt around for coupons, for you, NICE 'N' EASY deal.

If you look back in my blog's history (that's one of my most popular posts, BTW), you'll see I enjoyed NewBlueFX's plugins as a customer before joining as consultant, and as always, with anything I endorse, I'll explain my connections and why I'm intrigued. Promoting creative tools continues to be a cornerstone of what I love doing.

As mentioned within, I'm accumulating a "zoo", a prized collection of my favorite virtual instruments and effects. Sometime in the future I may push a list out, as you notice I strayly mention a few in a blog post here and there. I'll of course explain my favorite aspects of them, because "what" you use is half or less of the question. My old mode was to try as many as possible; having done that, I'm a more judicious picker.

But, a twist: sometime later and not a media darling (since which self-respecting journalist wants to have their secrets revealed on live TV? Or at least, to their camera crew?), Roddy comes in contact with another ape, "Bourbon Brownstone", who is less intuitive but able to deduce — and announce! — Roddy's deepest secret…

I just haven't decided what that will be yet.

Download audio file (torley-friendly-greetings-01.mp3)

Anyway, I was a shy kid, and it was hard for me to get my intentions across. In person, I'd start to stammer and lose focus. Over time, getting past my introversion, I learned if I was more upfront and simple about how I said hello, people would like me more. (And those that didn't, I could weed out quickly.) But a lot of people said "Hello!" In elementary school I had a good friend named Jared who was masterful at going "Yo!" So I thought to myself, "What would be accessible enough to be easily recognizable and help me meet new people, but not so generic… or alien that it'd be majorly offensive?"

Hallmark, for all the undeserved derision they get, is always onto something. And I thought of various staples like — well, Season's Greetings! But it isn't always the "Season" as in… the holiday season. But I am a pretty positive and friendly guy. So — hey!

"Friendly greetings" was born.

Or should I say, reborn, as it's no unique phrase by any stretch of imagination, but has become so associated with me because I use it frequently in my Second Life and other videos. I say it like I mean it, and yes, I mean it like I say it too.

I wish I had a way to easily search for the first time I typed "Friendly greetings!" on a forum. There've been many introductions over the years, but it's served me so well from one destination to the next: hearing "Friendly greetings!" said back to me makes me incredibly happy as it (harkening back to being a kid who was afraid he'd be forgotten) acknowledges my presence and positive influence on others.

Here's a picture of Daniel Voyager and me proclaiming "Friendly greetings!" today. You should really check out his Flickr sets, he travels so much in Second Life and voraciously photographs the many cool things he finds along the way.

Memorability matters, after all.

Today, I just googled and I've got the #1, #2, and #8 #7 matches for "Friendly greetings!". I didn't set out in the beginning to accomplish that, but it's been a secret hope. Well, secret no more.

And now you know, as Paul Harvey (who's moonwalking with Michael Jackson, no doubt) would say, THE REST OF THE STORY.

And I am ever-so-thankful for all the wonderful people I've met in my lives' journeys because of "Friendly greetings!"

VRM is advertised to make your headphones sound like speakers in different scenarios. Why would you want to do that? A matter of cost and convenience. Just like guitar amp simulators have provided time travel through a pedigree of famous sounds, there's a lot of home studio owners who don't have the luxury of a variety of environments to test their mixes in. Focusrite claims:

VRM effectively overcomes the major obstacle for mixing with headphones by giving you multiple perspectives on your mix, as if you were listening through speakers. Noise levels from mixing through speakers can make it impossible for most to mix at home, especially late at night. But with VRM you can mix any time, anywhere.

Also related, Redline Monitor, an earlier, simpler approach:

Redline Monitor is a listening, mixing, and mastering tool. It replaces the extreme stereo separation that is characteristic for headphones with the detailed stereo image of near-field monitor speakers.

And I know Audio Ease Speakerphone isn't designed strictly for this purpose as it's aimed (if I can say that — beloved thing is so goshdarned versatile) towards grittier stuff, but it's been a great joy to hear what my mixes might sound like in different spaces. Including through a windy cellphone.

Why I prefaced that is because I've gradually accumulated a number of piano-based pieces on SoundCloud which aren't on my main Piano page. (Which is getting long, I realize.) I took a few minutes to create a set (after seeing it done on other sites and wondering how I could attain the same), and if you missed any of these performances earlier, hope you enjoy!

P.S. That Fringe theme continues to be popular. Almost 150,000 downloads now. I wonder what spurred the traffic, as I noticed it spike around the season finale. Word-of-mouth from fansites? Alas, SoundCloud stats don't yet show referrers, whereas BandCamp does.